Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

EVENTS

Wichita Clinic Already Receiving Threats

A new abortion clinic has finally opened in Wichita, where Dr. George Tiller was murdered nearly four years ago, and the anti-choice terrorists are already actively threatening the life of those who bravely stepped forward to reopen the clinic. RH Reality Check reports:

The opening of the new abortion clinic has brought yet another round of frightening behavior from local anti-choice forces. The clinic’s executive director, Julie Burkhart, has been harassed at her home and has had to file a temporary restraining order against local terrorist Mark Hollick after he pointed a sign saying “Where is Your Church?” at her home (an obvious reference to the place of Dr. Tiller’s assassination). Meanwhile, Troy Newman, of Operation Rescue infamy, is already posting pictures and audio of a person who he claims is a new physician at the clinic.

A recent YouTube video posted by David Leach from the anti-choice group Army of God should cause local law enforcement officials to raise their local terrorist alert to red. The video is a recording of a recent jailhouse conversation with Scott Roeder, the convicted murderer of Dr. Tiller. What follows is a partial transcript of the video.

Leach: If someone would shoot the new abortionist like Scott shot George Tiller back in the Operation Rescue days, people called him Tiller the Killer, hardly anyone would appreciate it, but the babies. It will be a blessing to the babies, everyone else will panic. Of all places to open up a killing office, to reopen the one office in the United States more notorious for decades than any other is an act of defiance against God and the last remaining remnants of reverence for human life. It is what the Supreme Court classifies as “fighting words,” like throwing lard in a Mosque, burning a cross in a Black neighborhood, or immersing a cross in urine at taxpayers’ expense. It is a reckless act. It is not the act of someone who values their own safety. It is a gauntlet thrown down, by someone who wants a fight. Of course, I don’t know if anyone will pick up the gauntlet. I didn’t know Scott would act, before he did.

Roeder: It is a little bit death-defying for someone to walk back in there. For Julie “Darkheart” to walk back in there and reopen a murder mill where a man was stopped. It’s almost like putting a target on your back, saying, “Well, let’s see if you can shoot ME! I have to go back to what Pastor Mike Bray said: If 100 abortionists were shot, they [surviving abortionists] would probably go out of business. I think eight have been shot, so we’ve got 92 to go. Maybe she’ll be number nine. I don’t know, but she’s kind of painting a target on her.

I can only hope that the police in Wichita and the state police as well are on high alert and taking these threats very seriously.

“He came at the clinic with what I thought was an RPG, sir. I didn’t have time to notice that it was a big, black bible. He was yelling and screaming at our client, and I feared for the safety for both of us.”

well, by their threats and actions, we can be happy to note that these Christians are showing that they don’t actually believe what their religion tells them to do. They are some of the best evidence that Christianity is simply something made up by humans.

Nice people I like a lot are still telling me we have to seek a “middle ground” and reason with these people. I only wish they were just flat out putting me on, since I’m at the point of telling them to fuck off until they begin using their eyes and ears,to evaluate what’s happening in the nation right now, rather than in the bullshit Candyland of their “inner landscapes”

There’s no middle ground – most of today’s “conservatives” are in the grip of insanity and evil.

I doubt that the KCPD will be giving violent “Pro Life” (what a ridiculously inapt label) folks a pass. At Tiller’s criminal trial, shortly before his death, the police presence was pretty much, “You do NOT want to be fuckin’ with us”, and it was not because they liked Tiller. It was because cops, by and large, are people who do their jobs, just like the rest of us.

I wish they would stop abusing words like “babies” and “children.” There’s no chance they’re going to start being intellectually honest about when life begins, nor are they interested in the conversation.

Religious people are walking freak shows. That wouldn’t be so bad but they are armed and crazy. When I was paid to go to church, I looked through my viewfinder for that perfect photograph and I would sometimes tune into what the preacher, priest, rabbi,etc., was droning on about and thought “You people can’t be taking any of this drivel seriously?” but they were. After a while, weddings were not fun any more, way too much religious bullshit being thrown about.

“When I was paid to go to church, I looked through my viewfinder for that perfect photograph …. After a while, weddings were not fun any more”. – [shorter and with emphasis] abusedbypenguins
Ever hear of wedding photographers Dan?

@RH, #18 – Thanks to a new Kansas law, you can volunteer with the clinic if and only if you’re not employed by, affiliated with, or provide any services to any Kansas school. That’s the same law that defines life as beginning at fertilization.

Brownbackistan Lament
Oh give me a home, where the Tea Party roams,
And the Phelps Family protests and prays,
Where seldom is heard a minority’s word,
And the rain’s gone for hundreds of days.

Home, home is so strange!
Kobach, Kochs and HuelsKamp our KKKs,
Women’s rights? How absurd!
After men and guns, they’re third –
Trapped in this fundamentalist state.

Trackbacks

[…] Leach inferring that someone should murder the new providers at South Wind Women’s Center; Troy Newman of Operation Rescue violating Illinois recording statutes to surreptitiously record and …r; and the conviction, just today, of a man who plotted to kill a provider at a Planned Parenthood […]